A Titanic Tragedy

White Star Line Propaganda

The White Star Line commissioned the building of the Titanic in order to compete with their rival’s creation of the two fastest passenger ships of the time: the Mauritania and the Lusitania. J. Bruce Ismay, the Chairman of the White Star Line, aimed to build a ship that was based on size and luxury, not speed. Over time, Titanic has been referred to as the “Unsinkable Ship.” Factually, before it’s launch, this statement was usually qualified by the White Star Line with modifiers such as ‘practically’ or ‘nearly’ unsinkable. The public, however, preferred to leave these words out. Prior to the voyage, the White Star Line did, however, publish a promotional flyer stating that “as far as it is possible to do, these two wonderful vessels are designed to be unsinkable.” This type of propaganda may have contributed to why so many passengers aboard the ship did not board life boats; they felt there was no danger to them. Before the public had been fully alerted to the results of disaster on the morning of April 15, 1912, the Vice President of the White Star Line was heard stating: “We place absolute confidence in the Titanic. We believe that the boat is unsinkable.”